Lufthansa, like many other airlines, grounded its fleet of A380s at the beginning of the pandemic, when air traffic tanked and there seemed no future for the four-engine fuel-guzzling super jumbo, but this week Lufthansa announced their upcoming return to active service.
Several other airlines have also returned ‘retired’ models to service to keep up with growing demand while Boeing and Airbus have been unable to keep up with deliveries of their intended replacements for a variety of production and regulatory reasons.
In Lufthansa’s case, two types have returned: the A380 and the A340-600. The A340s were added to routes from Munich to the U.S. and other destinations in March, and the A380s will join them next June. Lufthansa had 14 A380s, but sold six of them over the past two years.
Initially three will be brought on, but CEO Carsten Spohr told investors that “We’ll need to bring that number up, from the demand we see and also for operational reasons, three is not enough. We’re currently working on a detailed plan for that.” Routes for the A380s have not been announced.
The A340s have been ticketed for replacement by Boeing 787s, now that deliveries have resumed.
